Scoring server

Abstract

A scoring server for assessing technical skills in a practical environment. A client application acts as a middle man between a terminal and an operating system to capture and forward all input from and output to students to the scoring server. The scoring server compares recorded student activity against a list of tasks deemed capable of accomplishing course objectives assigned to students. As objectives are met by a student, the students' grade is updated in real-time. Each student passes or fails an exam based on tasks performed and skills employed. The client application exists for two operating system types: WINDOWS® and LINUX®. A LINUX® client employs a pseudoterminal to permit access to terminal input/output and communication through stdin, stdout, and stderr channels. A windows client (WC) comprises a WC command line activity logger and a WC monitor process to intercept all communication through stdin, stdout, and stderr communication channels.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A system comprising:
 a non-transitory machine readable medium having machine executable instructions; 
 one or more processors that access the machine readable medium and execute the machine readable instructions, the machine readable instructions causing the system to:
 generate command information characterizing a command executed for a cyber training exercise for a scoring server, wherein the generating comprises:
 intercepting, at a pseudoterminal, user input into a primary terminal, the user input characterizing the command; 
 sending, from the pseudoterminal, data characterizing the command to an administrative service; 
 sending, from the administrative service, data characterizing the command to the scoring server; 
 calling, in response to the sending, the command at the pseudoterminal; 
 receiving, at the pseudoterminal, response data generated in response to the calling; and 
 forwarding, from the pseudoterminal, the response data to the administrative service and the primary terminal. 
 
 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the administrative service sends the response data to the scoring server in response to receiving, from the pseudoterminal, data characterizing another command. 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the pseudoterminal forwards the response data to the administrative service prior to forwarding the response data to the primary terminal. 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 3 , wherein the primary terminal outputs a response characterizing the response data in response to receiving the response data from the pseudoterminal. 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 4 , wherein the primary terminal outputs a response characterizing the response data prior to the administrative service sending the response data to the scoring server. 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the pseudoterminal operates on a computer device that has been assigned a given Internet Protocol (IP) address and the command is called on a computer device that has been assigned another IP address. 
     
     
       7. A method comprising:
 intercepting, at a pseudoterminal of a computing device, user input into a primary terminal of the computing device, the user input characterizing a command requested for a cyber training exercise in a network; 
 sending, from the pseudoterminal, data characterizing the command to an administrative service; 
 sending, from the administrative service executing on the computing device, data characterizing the command to a scoring server; 
 calling, in response to the sending, the command at the pseudoterminal; 
 receiving, at the pseudoterminal, response data generated in response to the calling; and 
 forwarding, from the pseudoterminal, the response data to the administrative service and the primary terminal. 
 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 sending, from the administrative service, the response data to the scoring server in response to receiving, from the pseudoterminal, data characterizing another command. 
 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 outputting, at the primary terminal, a response characterizing the response data. 
 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , wherein the outputting is executed prior to the administrative service sending the response data to the scoring server. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 7 , wherein the calling initiates a process on an external computing device. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 evaluating, at the scoring server, the cyber training exercise for a given student associated with the primary terminal based at least in part on the command sent from the administrative service; 
 comparing, at the received command to training performance objectives for the cyber training exercise; and 
 generating a score assessing a performance of the given student for the cyber training exercise based on the comparing. 
 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 associating the given student with the command based on matching an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computing device executing the primary terminal and an IP address associated with the command called by the pseudoterminal.